First full band electric show of 2013 for Dodgy, Primal Scream and anniversary of The Dodgy Album

Well there are signs of spring, friends of Dodgy, glimmers of sunshine and our activity is certainly budding into life. In fact, you might have noticed we have been busy bees already in 2013 and have immensely enjoyed meeting many new friends with intimate acoustic shows where we have been road testing new songs and refamiliarising with a few established ones.

We'll be focusing on the upcoming Back To Back tour* with Dodgy in a later post but yes, can you believe it? (we can't) 2013 is the 20th anniversary of the release of our debut album The Dodgy Album.
'2013' is also the title of a new single by Primal Scream, a band that have featured heavily in what you might call the story of Dodgy - we concur totally with the recent open letter to Primal Scream by @johnrobb77 ( you can read it HERE ) on one of our favourite websites Louder Than War.
2013 is an epic soundtrack for our times and we expect nothing less from The Scream - there are echoes of Hawkwind but that's no bad thing in itself and The Scream have form in this area, covering Hawkwind's 'Urban Guerrilla' some time back.
A particular memory (and a memory from those times is, dear readers, a fairly subjective thing) that we have is from a cold November night in 1992 when most of the mixing from The Dodgy Album was complete. We had been holed up in Parr Street Studios in Liverpool creating this colossus but decided to take a night off and venture down through snake pass to Sheffield where Primal Scream were headlining a benefit for striking miners with The Orb in support - we took a virtually complete and sequenced version of what was to be the album and saved the listening for the journey home.

At the gig after 'Little Fluffy Clouds' subsided there was a lull before The Scream took the stage to the familiar guitar chords from 'Moving On Up' - our merchandiser at the time ( he is now a notable physicist would you believe) was called Damage and Dodgy and gang used to love singing along with Bobby something like "Damage, we've got Damage, we've got Damage, he looks like a gnu" with their song 'Damaged'. That night The Scream encored with a monstrous version of Joy Divisions' 'Atmosphere' - possibly Peter Hook joined them onstage but none of us are going to put our names/memories to that one.

The journey heading back to Liverpool proved to be perilous, it being a harsh winter night with blizzards and freezing temperatures. Nigel at that time had a big heap of frizzy hair and some how our travelling van which had leopard skin sofas (don't ask) became a travelling pub and Nigel doubled as the pub's dog and barman. We listened to our work on The Dodgy Album on the van's excellent Hi-Fi system - excellent Hi-Fi system / shit heating system as we recall - not sure we've ever been so cold but were enormously proud of our achievement and a fitting statement to lay out Dodgy's stall as it were and just one of the reasons we are looking forward to playing all of those songs on the Back To Back tour.

This upcoming Friday (March 8th) though we have the first full band electric show from Dodgy in 2013, it's in Essex at the Braintree Arts Theatre, hopefully a few of you from Colchester and Chelmsford will be able to make the trip as well. We remember fondly some mad gigs with Dodgy at the Army And Navy/ Y Club in Chelmsford and a great night at Colchester Arts Centre - don't think there's a decent venue in Chelmsford anymore which is a shame - anybody knows different let us know.
Not quite sure who is behind our Dodgy sensible gigging policy but the night after we head out to Essex we go on a short jaunt um... to the West Country to Newton Abbott in Devon where we play at The Jolly Farmer... never say we are not willing to travel to delight you.

If we don't see you at the weekend - make it soon
all the best

Dodgy posse x

* DODGY BACK TO BACK TOUR 2013
Where DODGY will be playing with full electric set up, our debut THE DODGY ALBUM and most recent album STAND UPRIGHT IN A COOL PLACE in their entirety.

All venue and ticket details can be found at www.dodgyology.com/gigs/


If you haven't already, you can add value to your ticket PLUS get your name on the artwork to the LIVE album from this tour by signing up to the Back to Back mailing list here backtoback@dodgyology.com


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Back to Back Tour Campaign

Back to Back Campaign 2013

Love, the first successful step into life

 Dodgy are back out on the road in May to celebrate 20 years since the release of their debut album, THE DODGY ALBUM, and to continue spreading the love from last year's critically acclaimed album STAND UPRIGHT IN A COOL PLACE, they will be playing both albums in their entirety, back to back.

The tour will be called, aptly, the BACK to BACK Tour 2013. The dates are being finalised as we speak.

Not happy with simply playing the dates, DODGY want to add even more value to the price of your ticket so plans are being made to involve you all as much as possible, to give you exclusive access to radio sessions, rehearsals, warm-up shows, special one-off gigs and lots of other treats such as a chance to meet the band, upgrade your ticket to attend the sound-check and take home the set list.

All you have to do is simply leave your name now at backtoback@dodgyology.com

What's EVEN BETTER is that DODGY intend to release a LIVE album from the tour and EVERYONE who signs up will be added to the BACK TO BACK TOUR LIVE ALBUM HALL OF FAME...which means your name will appear on the album's artwork. Oh yeah.

Help us spread the word. The campaign is on:

TWITTER:@dodgyuk #dodgybacktoback2013

FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/dodgyuk.  

WEB: www.dodgyology.com

Disclaimer: You can sign up and join the Back to Back campaign and get your name on the live album EVEN if you can't make any of the dates! Though your sanity and the potential for unbridled joy in May would be seriously brought into question!

Seasonal Dodgy - Christmas shows 2012 and 1996

Hey! Anyone noticed?
(Cue Noddy Holder) ...That IT'SSSSSS CHRISTMASSSSSSSSSSSS.
And what better time for us give a blug (a plug in a blog) for our CHRISTMAS SHOW WITH DODGY in London on December 14th, with our guest @TheQuill - Mark Morris (from The Bluetones) and hopefully a few surprises. Tickets still available here:
Christmas with Dodgy - London O2 Islington Academy - TICKETS 

Oh, don't you just love that slowed down, shitty version of The Power Of Love, doesn't it just make you want to get to a John Lewis and spend - if you have anything to spend that is. Time's are tough round here, it's hard to spin a story to a twelve year old boy, that the reason he isn't going to get any presents this year is that this year Santa located his UK sleigh stable/depot in Tewkesbury, rains came, followed by floods resulting in all gifts sailing away down the Swanee confluence of the Severn and Avon - The Sweveronee, whilst the elves, reindeer and ol beardy bloke could only look inadequately on .. in horror... cheer up Tiny Tim, there's always next year, eh?
We'd like to write some witty treatise on this time of year but Charlie @charltonbrooker has already done it so brilliantly in his Guardian column so just go and read that
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/25/2012-christmas-adverts-snowmen-slave-labour

It seemed like only yesterday that Dodgy had our big Christmas show at Brixton Academy in London and it's great to be doing the O2 Academy in Islington this year.
When Dodgy hosted our Brixton show, we had already sold out the whole UK tour, with Brixton at the end and when tickets were selling well we got to achieve our aim of hosting a Brixton all-nighter. We always loved the Primal Scream all-nighters, so it was great to be able to do our own.
Being Christmas and our biggest gigs to date we wanted to do everything we could to make it special. Firstly, if you are going to do a big show, get a big stage and yes, a big stage set. After getting a blank from the record company and our management for a massive budget for set building, the drummer's brother came up with a perfect idea; he had trained at St. Martins College Of Art And Design in London and suggested we approach some of the students about the possibility of getting involved. We got a number and called the college rather speculatively enquiring "have you any student prodigies who would like to design and build a set for Dodgy on very little budget?"
Not only did they say yes but they enthusiastically gathered together most of their year group and did us proud. Game on. This is a while ago, what are you up to now boys and girls? We do know that at least one has gone on to bigger and better things, that's Pearl Bates who's now an artist as well as still working in theatre, TV design etc. but we'd love to hear from some of the others as well.

Also, at the time Dodgy were big fans of comedy and one of our favourite comedians and generally all round nice people we had met was @mrmichaelsmiley, now a top class actor who frightened us to death not so long ago in the movie Kill List. He hooked up with another up and coming comedian at the time @simonpegg, where's he now?
They did an amazing job, music and comedy, live on the same night, don't always best compliment each other but we were able to get away with it by dispensing with a snooty VIP bar upstairs and turning it into our very own comedy club - people still remember it, so it must have worked.

It also appears that we were somewhat trailblazing a way for this damn thing called t'internet at the time. Up until that point, without the help of modern social media, we used to write out a newsletter under the auspices of a made up character called George Winterbourne. We had books of postal addresses and if it hadn't been the faithful support of people like Damage and Chrissy H, the thing would never have worked but every time we put together a newsletter there would be a big envelope and stamping party - god knows how much it would cost with today's Royal Mail prices.
So, valuing the contact with our fans getting something called a website seemed to be ideal for us and slowly we were converting the mail addresses into email addresses to propel us into the modern world. Then someone suggested, what if we were to try and 'broadcast' the show onto/via the Internet - how good would that be?. Looking back on it, probably not very, as those people lucky enough to have access to the Internet did so via their phone lines. We enquired how this might be possible and were told that someone would have to install an ISDN line into Brixton Academy, we cheekily asked BT and to our surprise they said they would install one at the venue because they were testing out all this stuff too. The idea was that the system would be tested at lunchtime with us doing a live interview with Japan who were hours ahead in the day and then the big event and show broadcast would be in the evening.
We had already done a cracking show at the Academy the night before, so when we arrived on the day it was funny to see some changes in the venue. The webcast team had purloined a room at the academy and there were what looked like a motley collection of boffins and hippies (just about sums up the Internet then) looking at various computers - it was like Nasa mission control - Brixton, we're receiving you.

Apparently, the Japan connection went well - they were slightly more ahead on the Internet front and could see and hear us doing our interview from Brixton at the lunchtime. Later that night after Dodgy came off stage, we heard that the webcast itself was somewhat of a disaster, perhaps we'd overloaded the system and were probably at least five years in advance of where the technology actually was. In fact our tour manager had a portable computer (that's what they were then before laptops) and seeing Hippies vs Scientists taking an ugly turn he stepped in and at least, apparently those with suitable connections could hear audio, if not actually seeing us.

At the stage in Dodgy's career when we played the Brixton Academy Christmas show, we had a sizable live band, Richard on keyboards, a brass section and occasionally a backing singer or three. Plus a fantastic crew and some ever present friends - the stage set was impressive to say the least, so on the afternoon of the gig we got a banqueting table set up on stage and had a full Christmas dinner for everyone, with ALL the trimmings, rock and roll excess, you bet but it had to be done - it had been our hardest working year to date and everyone had contributed.
The music lineup consisted of ourselves and El Vez. El Vez is a larger than life Mexican/American rock and roll artist who we'd come to hear about through his campaigning and political edge to his songs which were funny and satirical. He had a Christmas album called Mexmas including songs such as 'Oranges for Christmas', 'Poncho Claus' and 'Brown Christmas' and put on a great show in true Christmas spirit, luckily we were able to get involved in bringing him over to do Brixton and a couple of other dates at Christmas including a memorable night at Liverpool Royal Court, anyone remember that one?
We also had a special guest lined-up, staying true to our Birmingham roots, with Roy Wood agreeing to join us on a version of 'I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day'

We've always been massive fans of Roy's music and can't be sure but think the only reason that he agreed to do it was that his daughter was a fan. Roy turned up with his guitar but chose to go to the front door rather than the artists stage door. He looks offstage, the way he does on, mad coloured hair and yes, he actually looks like a Wizard, the full Lord Of The Rings etc and of course had a load of trouble getting in as the bouncers were apparently unaware of who he was. Luckily one of our crew was on the look out for him and managed to get him in. As we're writing all this through faded memories, it's throwing up the question - did this really happen? And what do you know, we put it in google and this post came up on Frank Turner's forum - apparently he was asking his fans where was a good place to do a Christmas gig

"In 1996 I went to see Dodgy do an Xmas all nighter at Brixton, at one point they got Wizard on stage and played 'i wish it would be Christmas everyday' and as the song ended a load of fake snow fell from the roof. I was rather fucked on various things and the whole thing was amazing -a great memory. The gig finished at 6am and I made it to work by 9am. Half way through the day some old lady said to me 'i know what you;ve been taking' and winked at me. :wink:" Thanks to @atpmusic for that reminisce.

 Oh dear, snow - did we really have snow - actually we had met Snow ("Informer") in Jamaica earlier that year, during filming for the 'Good Enough' video but that's another story.
Hopefully a few of you who remember that Brixton night will actually be in a fit enough state to come this year for the Dodgy Christmas show at the O2 Academy in Islington on 14th December.
Remembering, that we also did special Xmas merchandising for that gig, Dodgy Christmas hats, Christmas mugs - yes you've got it, with our mugs in silly Xmas costumes and T-shirts - anyone owns one of these items perhaps get em up on Twitter to prove it wasn't all a dream
In fact anyone with any photos/memories of the Brixton christmas shows - get in touch.
See you on the 14th - for the gig goers it's an early show so you can get home if you have a fair way to travel or for those who want to party you get free entrance into the club after with majestic comedian @russell_kane on the decks - whooppee.

Great night at Northern Soul allnighter with DODGY in Wigan and new vinyl single

We wondered for moments, how wise it was to add a little diversion to promoting the new album by Dodgy, 'Stand Upright In A Cool Place' but on Saturday our Northern Soul all-nighter in Wigan hosted by Dodgy turned out to be a resounding success and suggested that in fact we aren't mad to have written and recorded our own 'northern soul' single. Thank you to everyone who came and danced...

As mentioned in the preview podcast, the idea came to us a few months ago after seeing how well our cover of  the late great Frank Wilson's 'Do I Love You (Indeed I do)'  was going down at the early Summer festivals.  So Dodgy set about writing and recording our own northern inspired single and had the idea of hosting our own northern soul all-nighter - all that was needed was an appropriate venue. Enter the ever diligent Wing Commander Berry, Dodgy's Northern attache who found The Rose Club which was formerly the Monaco Ballroom and what a find; sprung dance floor, balcony and indeed it had held a soul night in Wigan in the early 70's before the Casino opened it's doors.

It was a great to see a whole bunch of faces, old and new and good to hook up with Brian Cannon. We know Brian from our early days, he's got a bunch of Oasis artwork to his credit amongst a great portfolio and his current photographic project is called Northern Soul - A Photographic Journey , his new amazing photos and he brought his camera along on Saturday - we'll put a couple of his shots (of us ;-) up here.

We were aware from the beginning that we might produce varying reactions of the tribal variety, especially if we succeeded in pulling in some of the more devoted northern soul purists. A minority were not very keen at all,  you might even describe them as hostile but as the aim of the whole venture was to create something special and vibrant around music Dodgy love, so if a few were offended (hopefully for not too long a time) then so be it. We were front-line participants in the indie snob wars of the 1990's, so a bit of northern soul outrage wasn't going to derail us too much.

... and by the end of the night, as the talc cleared, it looked from where we were standing, that everyone was left with a smile on their face and a spring in their step with an overwhelmingly positive reaction, from the 45 Carat Soul Club and the Wigan Young Souls who agreed to host the night with us, to legendary DJ Pete Mitchell ( @petemitchelldj a regular down the Casino back in the day) who interviewed me for his Soul Time show on Absolute 60's. It should be up on his Mixcloud page here http://www.mixcloud.com/soultime/

One thing we knew was, that if Dodgy was going to release a northern soul single then in the spirit of the music, the main format we should release it on should be vinyl 7-inch. These days Dodgy don't have a record company to do all the practical work so it was an interesting adventure getting our recordings from the masters onto vinyl.
- CZECH REPUBLIC - EVESHAM - NEW YORK - WIGAN -

It seems that most vinyl now is manufactured in Czech Republic, so considering the songs were recorded in Vale Studios near Evesham in September, mastered in New York and arrived in Wigan via Eastern Europe just in time for the first date of the tour in Leicester, our little songs have had an International adventure to rival Phileas Fogg himself. No wonder they are so popular.

In fact interest in the single has been so phenomenal that in a couple of weeks it will also be available for download. Don't worry, we'll let you know when.

Quite a few years ago when I, drummer Math, was doing a series of Northern Soul shows for what was then the BBC radio station in London, GLR, called 'Where's Wigan? The Londoners Guide To Northern Soul' I had no idea that I would be part of our own Northern all-nighter... in Wigan! It was an ambitious project but there's a lot of interest in northern at the moment and a film currently in production called Northern Soul that promises to be both authentic and very good indeed. In fact as we mentioned before, the Wigan Young Souls who helped us host the night, are featured as young dancers in the film and boy, what dancing we were treated to on Saturday.
We tweeted during the night that you forget what an absolute visceral thrill it is to hear Northern Soul cranked up loud with a dance floor full of proper dancers, giving it plenty. We heard some incredible tunes that night also, some of them very rare, there were nearly tears when they played three of our fav tunes - Little Anthony and the Imperials - 'Better use Your Head', MVP - 'Turning My Heatbeat Up' and Darrell Banks - 'Open The Doors To Your Heart'. So once again, thanks to all the DJs on the night. But while we're on a thanking tip we have to heap a whole load of thanks on the Soul Queen, Vanessa Best from Ultrasound who joined us for the St Albans and Wigan date. She is simply incredible and we love playing with her. If you haven't yet checked out Ultrasound's brand new album, Play For Today then you absolutely must, it ranks as the best album this year ....next to Stand Upright In A Cool Place of course.

Now that the new single from Dodgy is launched, we need to spread the word. It was great getting a play on Radio 2 from Dermot the other Saturday, so give it a listen and if you like what you hear feel free to email / text your favourite DJ and 6Music etc. to let them know Dodgy are very much alive and well.

The tour didn't end in Wigan though. This week Dodgy are looking forward to live dates on Weds (24th Oct) near MILTON KEYNES @ The Stables, Thursday (25th Oct) BRIGHTON @ The Haunt, Friday (26th) ROCHESTER @ The Royal Function Rooms (sounds grand) finishing up on Saturday (27th) in BURY ST. EDMUNDS at the APEX. That sounds like a tour to us and expect to see at least half of you at one of these or another.

Got your tickets for the Dodgy Xmas show in London yet on December 14th yet? better hurry
www.livenation.co.uk/event/332672/dodgy-the-dodgy-xmas-party-tickets

Frank Wilson RIP - Do we love you? - Indeed we do

Frank Wilson RIP

5Th Dec 1940 - 27 Sep 2012

Want to keep things positive but we were genuinely shocked when we started hearing rumours coming through yesterday that soul singer Frank Wilson had died.

Dodgy have spent the whole summer showcasing his classic song 'Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)' and have just been in the studio to record our version as one of the tracks on a new northern flavoured single - so yes we were shocked and saddened to hear that Frank had lost his battle with cancer #anotheronebitesthedust

The best short biography we could find was here at www.frankwilson.co.uk

and in his time Frank wrote and produced hit records for Brenda Holloway, Diana Ross & the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes,The Miracles, The Four Tops, Eddie Kendricks, and more.

The story goes that his own single “Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)" was set for release on the Motown subsidiary label 'Soul.' Supposedly 250 demo 45s were pressed, but by that time Frank decided he would rather focus on producing (or Berry Gordy made that decision!!) and had the demos trashed. Somehow at least two known copies survived, one of which fetched over £25,000 (aprox. $37,000) in May 2009 to a mystery buyer, some say it was Frank Wilson himself.

Because of the scarcity of the original single and the high quality of the music (it was one of the most popular records in the Northern Soul movement), it has been championed as one of the rarest and most valuable records in history.

Hopefully our version is a fitting tribute you can check it the full version included in our latest podcast at pcdodgy.blogspot.co.uk or HERE

FRANK WILSON RIP

New podcast from Dodgy with Northern soul flavour including full versions of TWO NEW RECORDINGS

This post comes as a special Podcast from Dodgy drummer Math Priest for your listening pleasure, including EXCLUSIVE first full plays of two NEW TRACKS from Dodgy - get listening and feedback is always appreciated.

Math introduces the two new recordings from Dodgy, part homage to Northern soul music, to be released in October as a limited edition 7-inch single.
There are details of the launch event in Wigan (where else?) at the Monaco Soul Club on Saturday October 20th - it's going to be a party.

The podcast details Dodgy's relationship with Northern Soul music; Math who has form in the genre/presenting, with the show 'Where's Wigan?' he presented and programmed for GLR radio in London.
This summer, amongst a full festival date sheet, Dodgy included a couple of scooter rallys and as well as playing 'The Snake' by Al Wilson, recorded by Dodgy as a b-side to the single 'Melodies Haunt You', thought it would be courteous to throw in other Northern covers including 'Do I Love You (Indeed I Do) by Frank Wilson.
Math and Andy Miller guitarist with Dodgy, also have a side project The Soulwinners with Vanessa Best from Ultrasound (who have their own fantastic new album out soon @Ultrasoundband ) and she contributes backing vocals on these new tracks.

The podcast includes Math's brief (but by no means definitive) background to Northern Soul and points out that that the Frank Wilson version of 'Do I Love You' on Motown is one of the most sought after Northern singles.

 We also big up a new British film Northern Soul ( @nsoulthefilm ), directed by photographer Elaine Constantine currently filming in the North West and the connection with Wigan Young Souls.

The podcast includes the first play of a new song written and recorded by Dodgy influenced by Northern under the working title 'Wagon Wheel' - WARNING: That title might change but we like it for now ;-)

Listen to Math's podcast, spread the word and RSS (however that spreads) and see you in Wigan on October 20th, tickets are going fast
Podcast MP3 link
www.dodgyology.com

Dodgy Done Summer

Well folks, we made it.

A Summer diary packed as full as any Summer we've ever had. If you saw Dodgy and enjoyed us then thank you for coming down, if you didn't then I hope you get to see us soon as we're playing as well as we've ever played, and we played EVERYWHERE. (OK, not Glasgow, but we will soon). It certainly felt like we were following the Olympic torch around Britain at one point.

 We played our last festival of the summer last weekend at Off The Tracks in Donnington and then  finished things off with a storming show at one of the UK's largest scooter rallies at Mersea Island in deepest, darkest Essex. It has been a great Summer for Dodgy, and with only a short pause for breath we get back on the road to keep spreading the word about Stand Upright In A Cool Place, the new album by Dodgy with a short Scottish jaunt, a tour in October to coincide with our Northern Soul single, a Wigan all-nighter and a big Christmas bash in London to round off the year.

We are already missing that festival stage though, so if we get a call from Festival No.6 asking us to pop along and play the new album, we won't take much persuading - if they can pull that off it looks like a great event.

There was an article in The Guardian at the beginning of the summer with the headline "The great British musical festival washout" you can read it HERE

it focuses amongst other things, on how the British weather and the fact that Glastonbury didn't happen this year had caused many festivals to cancel and get poor turnouts. The weather factor is obvious but for the life of me I just don't get the Glastonbury one; other festivals complain when Glastonbury happens that they take all the ticket buyers.... and then blame them when they have a year off for not getting people in the 'festival mood'. Uh?? You know, imagine if there was a god and one day the world woke up and there was no Macdonalds - can you imagine all the other burger producers and sellers being up in arms? - "Oh no, with no Macdonalds on every street corner, how are WE going to get people into the burger mood ourselves?" The answer is make a fantastic burger with plenty of exciting fresh trimmings and make sure you market it properly and to the right audience, maybe?

Well Dodgy were certainly in the festival mood this year and we didn't need Glasto for that (we are happy to wait until next year for that). Encouraged by the great response to the release of our new album Stand Upright In A Cool Place, we made a conscious decision that summer 2012 we were going to get out on the festie circuit, cementing the fact that Dodgy are back - with all the trimmings and no chaff - rain or no rain, Olympics or no Olympics.
To add to the challenge, where ever possible, we added a smaller club gig before each festival weekend as a warm up. Of course playing so regularly we didn't really need to warm up every time but we wanted to get to a few of the UK corners we hadn't been for a while and in fact some of those nights were as memorable as the festivals themselves.

We kicked it all off way back at the start of May with a low key, acoustic performance at Dumbfest, not a massive festival as such but had a great night and pleased that the overall event raised over £4,500 for the Teenage Cancer Trust charity. Lakefest near Tewksbury next where we bumped into the band @MissingAndy for the first time this Summer (we played with them at Brentwood in July also) who went down an absolute storm plus we also encountered the mighty @ChesneyHawkes. Here's a boy that doesn't think twice about breaking all the rules. When you play a festival set, it's always a good trick to throw in the odd cover to get the crowd going but old Chesners took that idea and fucking RAN. He started with Summer of 69 and Oasis and didn't stop with the 'Best of Absolute Radio' playlist till he reached his 'one and only' hit at the end. We were impressed with the boy's shear gall. Good on him really as the crowd went bananas. And we had to follow him.

As June arrived we helped Portsmouth, ahem, celebrate the Queen's Jubilee at the Historic Dockyard which was all lovely until the heavens decided to empty ALL of Portsmouth's quota of rain for the year in one 20 minute burst. Still, we had a good time with @TheQuill AKA Mark Morriss who was on before us and we managed to get a version of Grassman in with the phenomenal Vanessa Best from @Ultrasoundband guesting on vocals. It wouldn't be the last time we had a night with these two sparkling characters this Summer.

Dodgy memory: On our very first tour with Dodgy, as no one really knew who we were, we sent the tour dates to the NME, that's it, just the dates and then invited any promoters or music fans to suggest or promote the gig on that night. It turned out to be a winner (we still have friends from those dates) and ended up playing a mod rally, a festival, a working men's club and someones garden - the variety of offers we got this summer reminded of those days.

Another highlight from June was being invited to play at Windsor Race track, it was Ladies Day. Can't say too much about that except that as we were being fed as much free wine and lasagne as we wanted, with our feet up watching the races (and the ladies) from our own box above the race track, I think we all glimpsed a little bit of what heaven might be like.

We mentioned in a previous blog, we had tickets to go and see The Stone Roses in Heaton Park on July 1st but we got an invite to play for The Eden Sessions which we couldn't refuse. Happily there were no regrets, it was a fantastic day, a highlight of the Summer in fact as we played to a capacity crowd in front of a lemon grove in the Mediterranean Biodome.

 JULY arrived and we had been slightly overwhelmed by the advance Twittering from @NibleyFestival who's hard promotion work paid off and they got an early sell-out, such a shame the rain came so heavy that weekend and we had to abandon set but Nibley still stands out as one of the best and friendliest UK festivals, please invite us back ;-)
Great to see and play alongside ASH and our old friends @mileshuntTWS and Erica at Guilfest and we ended July with the fantastic @CampBestival and @KendalCalling - two brilliantly organised, stand-out festivals for us. Kendal  Calling was especially great as we bumped into the @shedseven boys who are always up for a laugh. Dodgy had so much positive feedback from all the shows and we appreciate everyone who gave such an enthusiastic response to the new songs as well as the selection from our back catalogue. Raggedstone Hill went down especially well at Kendal, you loved it.

In August, it was nice to get our own direct connection to The 2012 Olympics, which was no surprise as we are known for our athletic physiques. The last time Dodgy played in Hyde Park it was from the back of a lorry at Speakers Corner and the band got arrested, this time we were invited to play as part of an event organised by Absolute Radio and BT. We weren't quite prepared for the size of the stage/event/audience but the sun shone and as the screen parted after showing a LIVE Gold Medal from the velodrome cycling, it was lovely to see a sea of smiling faces, about 25,000 of them, thank you all who came to that one. We had our own close up sniff of gold medals back stage as well.

A few festivals became casualties in August but we did have a great time playing out the back of a kebab van at Newquay Boardmasters festival. If you're sixteen and you wanna go somewhere to get drunk - this is place for you.

Then on to our second annual bash at the Four Crosses in Shrewsbury where we were reunited with Mark Morris, Vanessa and all the Shrewsbury nutters and what a splendid night it was. Looks like it may well turn into our own little Dodgy Fest - watch this space.
From there we travelled the half hour to Weston Park for the first of our V Festival appearances. V festival features a selection of artists across the pop spectrum and as August also marked the return of X-Factor to our TV screens, we'd like to offer a piece of evidence that perhaps the judges can spot talent when they rub shoulders with it. We give you Mathew and @officialtulisa

...and we finally got to see The Stone Roses. First we thought we would miss them as they were on the different day to us but we got to open the festival at the midlands site and then headed off to Chelmsford arriving just in time to catch them and we are so glad to say that they didn't disappoint. It was quite an emotional night as The Roses have always been such an important band to us from hearing Made of Stone on the Gary Crowley show on GLR in 1989 via the 'King Monkey' episode and playing with them at Pilton Fayre in 1995 and to finally see them in such good form with the original line up at V -so it was good 'closure' for us, as the Americans call it.

So that's the 'Dodgy Do Summer' tour over with, we're going to try to recharge the old batteries in time for our next event - Dodgy Do Shetland (and Aberdeen and Kinloss) on Sep 20/21/22.

Then it's the BIG night in Wigan where we get to launch our Northern Soul 7", believe me folks, this new song from Dodgy is an absolute belter, one of the best we've written. It goes by the working title of WagonWheel. Can't wait for you to hear it.

We have also tried an experiment and pull together a lot more first hand material on Dodgy at festivals this summer via Storify with a lot more video and photos etc. You can check out the results HERE - let us know what you think

Storify - Dodgy - A summer of festivals 2012

Take care folks and stay in touch